Use Micro-Iterations to speed up your mini dev. projects

Mar 5th 2016 (updated Apr 3rd 2023)

Most developers I know (including myself) like to work on small side projects in they're spare time, whether it's for a personal website or to make our lives easier at work. Some of the problems we encounter (like anything) is finding time to do so and trying to not get bored of the more boring development work before we finish.

To minimise you mini-project drop out rate aim to create working, useful functionality in a few hours - what I would call a micro-iteration. When you have an idea think about the minimal amount of work required to build at least a key part of the idea that is achievable in around an hour or two, then code it and deliver it. If you planned it right then you will have a clear target to hit in a very short space of time, and hopefully a short enough space of time to actually do it without getting bored. It also means that you wouldn't have wasted a load of time on something that turned out to not be a great idea in the end.

To be honest this is probably an approach  you should be taking (if you're not already) for functionality on big professional projects - so it's worth really thinking about.